The Venture Codex

Participated · Equity · May 2024

Metrovate is a New Zealand agritech startup developing precision biostimulants that target crop-specific growth responses while minimizing off-target impacts. Founder and chief scientific officer Nikolai Macnee combines molecular biology with machine learning to isolate natural signalling molecules for targeted, biodegradable plant-growth formulations. The company operates a purpose-built lab in the Newmarket Innovation Precinct at the University of Auckland. Current work focuses on validating efficacy, refining an initial targeted product, and conducting further field trials and R&D ahead of commercial scale-up. Metrovate positions its platform as a way to improve crop resilience, speed recovery, and raise yields while reducing reliance on fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides.

Led · Seed · Sep 2023

Scentian Bio develops a palm-sized sensor-on-a-chip that combines insect-inspired sensing with AI to identify complex combinations of volatile organic compounds. The device aims to deliver near-real-time, easy-to-interpret results for use cases including food spoilage detection, air-quality monitoring, and the detection of explosives or pests. The company reports it is working with seven global leaders in food, beverages and condiments as it nears commercial launch. Cofounders Andrew Králíček and Jonathan Good envision the technology eventually migrating into consumer devices such as smartwatches and handsets. The startup is months away from market and has just raised $7M in a pre-Series A to support product completion and commercialization.

Participated · Series C · Apr 2023

CropX Technologies provides an Agronomic Farm Management System that synthesizes data from the earth and sky to deliver advanced soil and crop intelligence and digital decision and planning tools on an app capable of tracking multiple farms and fields. Its system supports irrigation planning that helps users conserve water and boost yields, while also optimizing energy and fertilizer use and supporting more sustainable farming practices. CropX is deployed in over 60 countries across all arable continents and now has over 100 employees in the US, the Netherlands, Israel and New Zealand, with a large research and development department. The company closed a $30M Series C round led by Aliaxis. CropX intends to use the proceeds to continue developing innovative capabilities for its agronomic farm management system and to acquire companies with complementary technologies and market reach. Through its partnership with Aliaxis the company will continue close collaboration in the field of data-driven precision irrigation. CropX develops advanced soil sensor technology and a cloud-based agricultural analytics platform that integrates with top irrigation systems and a mobile app to tell farmers where, when and how much to water or fertilize. The company integrates satellite, weather, crop modeling and topographical data with soil intelligence to deliver accurate prediction at scale. CropX’s platform is installed around the globe on the fields of leading farms and used by irrigation, seed and fertilizer companies. The company plans to use the new funding to extend research and development and accelerate penetration of its analytics platform across a broad cross-section of grower environments. CropX is led by CEO Tomer Tzach and recently added John Vikupitz as president to drive global expansion and market adoption. The company is based in San Francisco, CA and Israel. CropX builds an Internet of Soil composed of three wireless soil sensors and a mobile app that measures field variability and prescribes irrigation per zone. The company performs a one-time analysis of each field using publicly available soil and topography data to divide land into irrigation zones and show where to place sensors. Sensors are battery-powered, last up to four years, send soil data to the cloud, and the app calculates the water needed to maximize yield in each zone. CropX is currently deployed to power irrigation on about 5,000 acres across farms in Missouri, Colorado and Kansas, and farmers report water and energy savings of up to 25%. The system helps prevent overwatering and associated chemical run-off. With a $9 million Series A, the company plans to expand its reach across the country and pursue opportunities in the estimated $2.5 trillion crop yield enhancement market, noting that 90% of farmers currently don’t use irrigation-optimization tools.

Participated · Series D · Sep 2022

Taranis provides an AI-powered crop intelligence platform that leverages leaf-level imagery and machine learning to deliver full-service, leaf-level data capture for growers and ag advisors. Its models are trained on a dataset of over 200 million AI-data points. Since starting in 2015, Taranis has worked with top agricultural retailers and crop protection companies, serving millions of acres across the United States, Brazil, and Europe. Led by CEO Bar Veinstein and President Ofir Schlam, the platform helps ag advisors demonstrate value to growers, accelerate decision making, simplify management, and improve growers' bottom lines. The company raised $40M in a Series D that brought total funding to $100M. Taranis plans to use the funds to accelerate growth, expand globally, and invest in technologies to make the agri-carbon market a reality for growers. Taranis provides aerial imaging and analytics to deliver leaf-level pest diagnosis and customized prescription plans via its AI2 SmartScout Solutions. Its platform leverages a database of more than 1 million threat species and combines drone and plane imagery with satellite feeds to create high-resolution (0.3 millimeter pixel) maps. The company says it can cover 100 acres in six minutes and produce diagnoses 20 times faster than manual scouting with 20 times more data points. About 80% of clients currently use Taranis contractors rather than operate their own equipment. Planned uses of funding include improving diagnostic accuracy and comprehensiveness, identifying new pests and weeds across more crops, and geographic expansion across the Americas and into Asia-Pacific markets. Taranis intends to integrate its data with partners and equipment providers rather than move into spraying itself. Taranis provides aerial scouting and deep-learning software that analyzes high-resolution images captured by high-speed drones or manned aircraft to identify insect damage, nutrient deficiencies, diseases and other crop issues. Its platform delivers magnified images detailed enough for users to see which pests are affecting plants. The software targets commodity crops including corn, cotton, wheat, soybean, sugarcane and potatoes. Taranis says its technology is currently used by farms in Argentina, Brazil, Russia, Ukraine and the United States. The company plans to expand into more countries with the new funding, explicitly including Australia. Founded in 2015 by Ofir Schlam, Asaf Horvitz, Eli Bukchin and Ayal Karmi, the company combines hardware (aerial imaging) and AI to streamline traditional, labor-intensive crop monitoring. Taranis offers a precision agriculture intelligence platform that combines deep learning with proprietary datasets including sub-mm aerial imagery, field sensors, satellite imagery, weather forecasts and data from its field scouting app. The solution helps farmers monitor fields, make informed decisions and act to prevent losses from crop disease and pests. Led by CEO Ofir Schlam, the company is focused on scaling its pest and disease prediction platform and expanding its global reach. Taranis has subsidiaries in Argentina and Brazil and is establishing a U.S. office while expanding into India and Russia. The company has raised $9.5M in total funding to date and intends to use the new proceeds to accelerate platform growth and international expansion. Taranis builds crop-disease prediction software that combines public weather services, satellite imagery, and a proprietary high-resolution weather forecast model to detect micro weather conditions. It layers a localized model with local public data and deploys weather stations roughly every two miles on farms that lack them, and can integrate with farms' existing stations or cover station costs for full-service customers over more than 1,000 acres. The company offers a SmartScout app that integrates predictions and sends messages and chat notifications to farmers' networks of service providers to help prioritize farm visits. Taranis focuses on predicting disease before crop impact—for example detecting infection periods for fire blight—and aims to reduce spray loads and increase yields. The service is priced at $3 per acre with no user limits. Go-to-market efforts target Brazil, Argentina and the U.S., prioritizing soybeans, corn and cotton, though the product can be used for other crops. With proceeds from its seed round, the company is expanding its team from four co‑founders (who self-funded the startup's first 18 months) to about 10 staff including developers, meteorologists, agronomists and sales.

Participated · Series B · Jul 2022

Animol Discovery pioneers the use of DNA-encoded library (DEL) drug discovery coupled with machine learning and structure-based design to discover small-molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients for veterinary medicine. The company focuses on addressing unmet needs in companion and production animals by applying tools from human pharma and crop-protection discovery. Animol aims to reduce time and cost to identify novel active ingredients and accelerate progression of candidates into development. It has built a pipeline of promising compounds using its high-throughput DEL screens and predictive algorithms. Animol was founded in 2020, was incubated by Anterra Capital, and is based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company plans to advance its pipeline through clinical development and further enhance its drug-discovery platform.